Sushil Kumar has been suffering from tuberculosis and has come all the way from Jharkhand to Delhi to get himself treated.

“I had a bad cough, doctors asked me to go in for a sputum test and I was diagnosed with tuberculosis,” says Kumar.

While incidence of TB has dropped in countries like the US, the increase in drug resistant strains is a huge cause of worry for doctors, especially in countries in Asia and Africa, where 83 per cent of the world’s cases of tuberculosis are reported.

Another trend that has doctors worried is that TB is no longer a poor man’s disease. Affluent urban India is adding to the number of deaths caused by Tuberculosis.

Even though there has been a decline in numbers. India continues to have the highest number of TB cases followed by China, Indonesia, South Africa and Nigeria.

According to WHO report 2007, in India the death rates due to TB have declined from 42 per 100,000 population in 1990 to 29 per 100,000 population in 2005.

However, the rate of detection of new cases has fallen to 3 per cent from an average of 6 per cent in the preceding five years. This is despite India boasting of the biggest TB detection programme in the world.

Initially these DOT centers were very active however, with time they are not that pro-active due to which there is a decline in rate of detection.

These statistics are worrisome as the higher the cases of early detection, the lower the chance of transmission of the disease and gives a better chance to cure.